8/17/2019 New Orleans City & Lake R. Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U.S. 192 (1892)

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143 U.S. 192

12 S.Ct. 406

36 L.Ed. 121

NEW ORLEANS CITY & L. R. CO.

v.

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.

 February 29, 1892.

STATEMENT BY MR. JUSTICE GRAY.

This was a summary proceeding by the city of New Orleans against the

 New Orleans City & Lake Railroad Company in a civil district court of the

 parish of Orleans, to collect a license tax of $2,500 for the year 1887,

imposed lby an ordinance of the city, pursuant to the statute of Louisiana

of 1886, No. 101, § 8, which provided 'that for the business of carrying

on, operating, or running any horse or steam railroad, or both, for the

transportation of passengers within the limits of any city or town in this

state, the annual license shall be based on the annual gross receipts, as

follows, viz.: First class. When the said annual gross receipts are fivehundred thousand dollars, or in excess of that amount, the license shall be

twenty-five hundred dollars.' Acts La. 1886, pp. 165, 175.

The defendant admitted that its ammual gross receipts were more than

$500,000; but contended that the statute and ordinance, so far as they

affected the defendant, were unconstitutional and void, as impairing the

obligation of the following contracts:

On October 2, 1879, the city of New Orleans sold to the New Orleans

City Railroad Company, for the price of $63,000, the right of way and

franchises for running certain lines of street railroad for carrying

 passengers within the city until January 1, 1906, 'to have and to hold the

said right of way and franchises of the said railroad lines unto the said

 New Orleans City Railroad Company, its successors and assigns,

transferees and vendees, for the full term and period hereinabove fixed;'

and the company agreed to construct its railroad, to keep the streets inrepair, and to comply with regulations as to the style and running of cars,

the motive power, and the rates of fare, as therein provided, and to

'annually pay into the city treasury, upon the assessed value of said road

8/17/2019 New Orleans City & Lake R. Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U.S. 192 (1892)

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8/17/2019 New Orleans City & Lake R. Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U.S. 192 (1892)

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certain sums annually for public purposes, and declaring that, upon its

accepting and complying with the provisions of the act, the faith of the state

was pleaded not to impose any further tax or burden upon the corporation

during the continuance of the charter, exempted the stockholders from taxation

on their stock; and so much of the opinion as might, taken by itself, seem to

support this writ of error, has been often explained or disapproved. Bank v.

Knoop, 16 How. 369, 386, 401, 402; People v. Commissioners, 4 Wall, 244,259; Bank v. Skelly, 1 Black, 436, 446; Farrington v. Tennessee, 95 U. S. 679,

690, 694; Stone v. Trust Co., 116 U. S. 307, 328, 6 Sup. St. Rep. 334, 388,

1191.

3 The case at bar cannot be distinguished from that of Gas-Light Co. v. Shelby

Co., in which this court upheld a license tax upon a corporation, which had

acquired by its charter the privilege of erecting gasworks, and making and

selling gas for 50 years; and, speaking by Mr. Justice MILLER, said: 'Theargument of counsel is that, if no express contract against taxation can be found

here, it must be implied, because to permit the state to tax this company by a

license tax for the privilege granted by its charter is to destroy that privilege.

But the answer is that the company took their charter subject to the same right

of taxation in the state that applies to all other privileges and to all other 

 property. If they wished or intended to have an exemption of any kind from

taxation, or felt that it was necessary to the profitable working of their business,

they should have required a provision to that effect in their charter. Theconstitution of the United States does not profess in all cases to protect property

from unjust and oppressive taxation by the states. That is left to the state

constitution and state laws.' 109 U. S. 398, 400, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 205.

4 The New Orleans City Railroad Company having had no right of exemption

from the tax im question, it is unnecessary to consider whether such a right, had

it existed, would have passed by the conveyance to the plaintiff in error. See

Railway v. Miller, 114 U. S. 176, 184, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 813, and cases cited;Picard v. Railroad, 130 U. S. 637, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 640.

5 Judgment affirmed.